7-6.
That was the Detroit Tigers’ record on April 17th after a 10-2 loss to the Cleveland Indians, a loss that prompted Jim Leyland to say things like “We just plain stunk.” and “It’s not acceptable.”
From then on, the Tigers won 69 of their next 99 games en route to their first playoff appearance in 19 years. They did it with strong pitching, timely hitting, and wonderful defensive plays from a young core of athletes.Players like Brandon Inge, Craig Monroe and Curtis Granderson showed great promise, Marcus Thames finally got the at bats he needed to prove his worth, and veterans like Kenny Rogers, Magglio Ordonez and Ivan Rodriguez showed that they were not necessarily on the downsides of their careers just yet.
The Tigers turned 7-6 to 76-36 and cruised to the playoffs. Though they went 19-31 in their last fifty games, and lost their last five, a win on a Sunday in Kansas City with six games to go in the season was all they needed to clinch that playoff spot that had eluded them for so long. They had already exceeded expectations. They had already given the city of Detroit their first winning season since before Bobby Higginson came and went as the team’s heart and soul. They had already
proven they belonged in the playoffs.
And they got there.
First up were the New York Yankees—a team that, like the Tigers, cruised into the playoffs, winning the perennially tough American League East by ten games. This was nothing new for the Yankees. They are
expected to go to the World Series every year. They are expected to cruise through the playoffs with their lineup and payroll. They were expected to beat the Tigers.
But that didn’t happen. After beating up on Nate Robertson in Game One, no Tiger pitcher allowed more than three runs to the Yankees in any of the series’ final three games, and the Tigers were on their way to the American League Championship Series against the Oakland A’s, the team that Detroit took two of three from in Oakland after starting with the aforementioned 7-6 record that “just plain stunk.”
7-6 isn’t a bad way to start the season by any means. The Royals started 2-11 over their first thirteen games and were basically out of the playoffs before the first tenth of the season was even complete. 7-6 is over .500, and it is actually pace for 87 wins. Not one Tiger fan would be upset with 87 wins if they were given to this team at the start of the 2006 season. They hadn’t had a winning team in Detroit since 1993. 87 wins would be just fine.
But after that tirade in front of reporters, the Tigers turned 7-6 into 76-36. They were the best team in baseball by far, and it was the middle of August. They still hadn’t beaten the White Sox in a series in Chicago, and they ended up 2-5 against the Yankees, but there was hope. Hope for Detroit. Though the pundits and so-called experts didn’t give them a chance against the “best” teams in the American League, the city of Detroit got behind its team and ended up setting a Comerica Park attendance record. Granted, this is the first winning season the Tigers have had since they moved, but the city was
there for them, and fast, with the kind of exuberance you would want when following a contender.
It is that exuberance that bled into the Tiger dugout. During the ALDS against the Yankees, you could tell which team was more into the game. The Yankees sat back on the dugout bench watching the game like a bunch of fans taking their families out for a day at the ballpark. Almost every Tiger was on the first step of the dugout, living and dying with every pitch, discussing the moves of Mussina, Johnson and Wright with each other, trying to help each other the next time up.
The same thing held true last night in the first game against Oakland. Frank homas sat on the bench joking with other A’s while the Tigers stood, crouched and stared onto the field rooting on every pitch, hit and run—trying to get one step closer to the action if at all
possible. This was a game the Tigers wanted more than the A’s, and this is a game the Tigers would take.
Now all that is left is to finish the season with the same record that they started with, 7-6. If the Tigers can go 7-6, they will win the World Series. If they can finish with the same record they started with, they can claim the impossible prize at the end of eight months of preparation. 7-6 is all they need.
But to go 7-6 now, they need to play like champions…
